CHAPTER 2

Jonathan Harker's Journal Continued

5 May.--I must have been asleep, for certainly if I had
been fully awake I must have noticed the approach of such a
remarkable place. In the gloom the courtyard looked of considerable size, and as several dark ways led from it under
great round arches, it perhaps seemed bigger than it really
is. I have not yet been able to see it by daylight.

When the caleche stopped, the driver jumped down and
held out his hand to assist me to alight. Again I could not
but notice his prodigious strength. His hand actually seemed
like a steel vice that could have crushed mine if he had
chosen. Then he took my traps, and placed them on the ground
beside me as I stood close to a great door, old and studded
with large iron nails, and set in a projecting doorway of
massive stone. I could see even in th e dim light that the
stone was massively carved, but that the carving had been
much worn by time and weather. As I stood, the driver jumped again into his seat and shook the reins.The horses started forward,and trap and all disappeared down one of the dark
openings.

I stood in silence where I was, for I did not know what
to do. Of bell or knocker there was no sign. Through these
frowning walls and dark window openings it was not likely
that my voice could penetrate. The time I waited seemed endless, and I felt doubts and fears crowding upon me. What
sort of place had I come to, and among what kind of people?
What sort of grim adventure was it on which I had embarked?
Was this a customary incident in the life of a solicitor's
clerk sent out to explain the purchase of a London estate
to a foreigner? Solicitor's clerk! Mina would not like that.
Solicitor, for just before leaving London I got word that my
examination was successful, and I am now a full-blown solicitor! I began to rub my eyes and pinch myself to see if I
were awake. It all seemed like a horrible nightmare to me,
and I expected that I should suddenly awake, and find myself
at home, with the dawn struggling in through the windows, as
I had now and again felt in the morning after a day of overwork. But my flesh answered the pinching test, and my eyes
were not to be deceived. I was indeed awake and among the
Carpathians. All I could do now was to be patient, and to
wait the coming of morning.

Just as I had come to this conclusion I heard a heavy
step approaching behind the great door, and saw through the
chinks the gleam of a coming light. Then there was the
sound of rattling chains and the clanking of massive bolts
drawn back. A key was turned with the loud grating noise of
long disuse, and the great door swung back.

Within, stood a tall old man, clean shaven save for a
long white moustache, and clad in black from head to foot,
without a single speck of colour about him anywhere. He
held in his hand an antique silver lamp, in which the flame
burned without a chimney or globe of any kind, throwing long
quivering shadows as it flickered in the draught of the open
door. The old man motioned me in with his right hand with a
courtly gesture, saying in excellent English, but with a
strange intonation.

"Welcome to my house! Enter freely and of your own free
will!" He made no motion of stepping to meet me, but stood
like a statue,as though his gesture of welcome had fixed him
into stone.The instant, however, that I had stepped over the
threshold, he moved impulsively forward, and holding out his
hand grasped mine with a strength which made me wince, an
effect which was not lessened by the fact that it seemed
cold as ice, more like the hand of a dead than a living man.
Again he said.

"Welcome to my house! Enter freely.Go safely, and leave
something of the happiness you bring!" The strength of the
handshake was so much akin to that which I had noticed in
the driver, whose face I had not seen, that for a moment I
doubted if it were not the same person to whom I was speaking. So to make sure, I said interrogatively, "Count Dracula?"

He bowed in a courtly was as he replied, "I am Dracula,
and I bid you welcome, Mr. Harker, to my house. Come in, the
night air is chill, and you must need to eat and rest."As he
was speaking, he put the lamp on a bracket on the wall, and
stepping out, took my luggage. He had carried it in before I
could forestall him. I protested, but he insisted.

"Nay, sir, you are my guest. It is late, and my people
are not available. Let me see to your comfort myself. "He insisted on carrying my traps along the passage, and then up a
great winding stair, and along another great passage, on
whose stone floor our steps rang heavily. At the end of this
he threw open a heavy door, and I rejoiced to see within a
well-lit room in which a table was spread for supper, and on
whose mighty hearth a great fire of logs,freshly replenished,
flamed and flared.

The Count halted, putting down my bags, closed the door,
and crossing the room, opened another door, which led into a
small octagonal room lit by a single lamp, and seemingly
without a window of any sort. Passing through this, he opened another door, and motioned me to enter. It was a welcome
sight. For here was a great bedroom well lighted and warmed
with another log fire, also added to but lately, for the top
logs were fresh, which sent a hollow roar up the wide chimney. The Count himself left my luggage inside and withdrew,
saying, before he closed the door.

"You will need, after your journey, to refresh yourself
by making your toilet. I trust you will find all you wish.
When you are ready, come into the other room, where you will
find your supper prepared."

The light and warmth and the Count's courteous welcome
seemed to have dissipated all my doubts and fears. Having
then reached my normal state, I discovered that I was half
famished with hunger. So making a hasty toilet, I went into
the other room.

I found supper already laid out. My host, who stood on
one side of the great fireplace, leaning against the stonework, made a graceful wave of his hand to the table, and
said,

"I pray you, be seated and sup how you please. You will
I trust, excuse me that I do not join you, but I have dined
already, and I do not sup."

I handed to him the sealed letter which Mr. Hawkins had
entrusted to me. He opened it and read it gravely. Then,
with a charming smile, he handed it to me to read. One passage of it, at least, gave me a thrill of pleasure.

"I must regret that an attack of gout, from which malady I am a constant sufferer, forbids absolutely any travelling on my part for some time to come. But I am happy to say
I can send a sufficient substitute, one in whom I have every
possible confidence. He is a young man, full of energy and
talent in his own way, and of a very faithful disposition.
He is discreet and silent, and has grown into manhood in my
service. He shall be ready to attend on you when you will
during his stay, and shall take your instructions in all
matters."

The count himself came forward and took off the cover
of a dish, and I fell to at once on an excellent roast
chicken. This, with some cheese and a salad and a bottle of
old tokay, of which I had two glasses, was my supper.During
the time I was eating it the Count asked me many question
as to my journey, and I told him by degrees all I had
experienced.

By this time I had finished my supper,and by my host's
desire had drawn up a chair by the fire and begun to smoke
a cigar which he offered me, at the same time excusing himself that he did not smoke. I had now an opportunity of
observing him, and found him of a very marked physiognomy.

His face was a strong, a very strong, aquiline, with
high bridge of the thin nose and peculiarly arched nostrils,
with lofty domed forehead, and hair growing scantily round
the temples but profusely elsewhere. His eyebrows were very
massive, almost meeting over the nose, and with bushy hair
that seemed to curl in its own profusion. The mouth, so
far as I could see it under the heavy moustache, was fixed
and rather cruel-looking, with peculiarly sharp white teeth.
These protruded over the lips, whose remarkable ruddiness
showed astonishing vitality in a man of his years. For the
rest, his ears were pale, and at the tops extremely pointed. The chin was broad and strong, and the cheeks firm
though thin. The general effect was one of extraordinary
pallor.

Hitherto I had noticed the backs of his hands as they
lay on his knees in the firelight, and they had seemed
rather white and fine. But seeing them now close to me, I
could not but notice that they were rather coarse, broad,
with squat fingers. Strange to say, there were hairs in the
centre of the palm. The nails were long and fine, and cut
to a sharp point. As the Count leaned over me and his hands
touched me, I could not repress a shudder. It may have been
that his breath was rank, but a horrible feeling of nausea
came over me, which, do what I would, I could not conceal.

The Count, evidently noticing it, drew back. And with
a grim sort of smile, which showed more than he had yet
done his protruberant teeth, sat himself down again on his
own side of the fireplace. We were both silent for a while,
and as I looked towards the window I saw the first dim
streak of the coming dawn. There seemed a strange stillness
over everything. But as I listened, I heard as if from down
below in the valley the howling of many wolves. The Count's
eyes gleamed, and he said.

"Listen to them, the children of the night. What music
they make!" Seeing, I suppose, some expression in my face
strange to him, he added,"Ah, sir, you dwellers in the city
cannot enter into the feelings of the hunter." Then he rose
and said.

"But you must be tired. Your bedroom is all ready, and
tomorrow you shall sleep as late as you will. I have to be
away till the afternoon, so sleep well and dream well!"
With a courteous bow, he opened for me himself the door to
the octagonal room, and I entered my bedroom.

I am all in a sea of wonders. I doubt. I fear. I think
strange things, which I dare not confess to my own soul.
God keep me, if only for the sake of those dear to me!

7 May.--It is again early morning, but I have rested
and enjoyed the last twenty-four hours. I slept till late
in the day, and awoke of my own accord. When I had dressed
myself I went into the room where we had supped, and found
a cold breakfast laid out, with coffee kept hot by the pot
being placed on the hearth. There was a card on the table,
on which was written--

"I have to be absent for a while. Do not wait for me.
D." I set to and enjoyed a hearty meal. When I had done,
I looked for a bell, so that I might let the servants know
I had finished, but I could not find one. There are certainly odd deficiencies in the house, considering the extraordinary evidences of wealth which are round me. The
table service is of gold, and so beautifully wrought that
it must be of immense value. The curtains and upholstery
of the chairs and sofas and the hangings of my bed are of
the costliest and most beautiful fabrics, and must have
been of fabulous value when they were made, for they are
centuries old, though in excellent order. I saw something
like them in Hampton Court, but they were worn and frayed
and moth-eaten. But still in none of the rooms is there a
mirror. There is not even a toilet glass on my table, and
I had to get the little shaving glass from my bag before I
could either shave or brush my hair. I have not yet seen a
servant anywhere, or heard a sound near the castle except
the howling of wolves. Some time after I had finished my
meal, I do not know whether to call it breakfast of dinner,
for it was between five and six o'clock when I had it, I
looked about for something to read, for I did not like to
go about the castle until I had asked the Count's permission. There was absolutely nothing in the room, book, newspaper, or even writing materials, so I opened another door
in the room and found a sort of library. The door opposite
mine I tried, but found locked.

In the library I found, to my great delight, a vast
number of English books, whole shelves full of them, and
bound volumes of magazines and newspapers. A table in the
center was littered with English magazines and newspapers,
though none of them were of very recent date. The books
were of the most varied kind, history, geography, politics,
political economy, botany, geology, law, all relating to
England and English life and customs and manners. There
were even such books of reference as the London Directory,
the "Red" and "Blue" books, Whitaker's Almanac, the Army
and Navy Lists, and it somehow gladdened my heart to see
it, the Law List.

Whilst I was looking at the books, the door opened,
and the Count entered. He saluted me in a hearty way, and
hoped that I had had a good night's rest. Then he went on.

"I am glad you found your way in here, for I am sure
there is much that will interest you. These companions,"
and he laid his hand on some of the books, "have been good
friends to me, and for some years past, ever since I had
the idea of going to London, have given me many, many hours
of pleasure. Through them I have come to know your great
England, and to know her is to love her. I long to go
through the crowded streets of your mighty London, to be
in the midst of the whirl and rush of humanity, to share
its life, its change, its death, and all that makes it what
it is. But alas! As yet I only know your tongue through
books. To you, my friend, I look that I know it to speak."

"But, Count," I said, "You know and speak English
thoroughly!" He bowed gravely.

"I thank you, my friend, for your all too-flattering
estimate, but yet I fear that I am but a little way on the
road I would travel. True,I know the grammar and the words,
but yet I know not how to speak them.

"Indeed," I said, "You speak excellently."

"Not so," he answered. "Well, I know that, did I move
and speak in your London, none there are who would not know
me for a stranger. That is not enough for me. Here I am noble. I am a Boyar. The common people know me, and I am master.
But a stranger in a strange land, he is no one. Men know
him not, and to know not is to care not for. I am content
if I am like the rest, so that no man stops if he sees me,
or pauses in his speaking if he hears my words, `Ha, ha!
A stranger!' I have been so long master that I would be
master still, or at least that none other should be master
of me. You come to me not alone as agent of my friend Peter
Hawkins, of Exeter, to tell me all about my new estate in
London. You shall, I trust, rest here with me a while, so
that by our talking I may learn the English intonation. And
I would that you tell me when I make error, even of the
smallest, in my speaking. I am sorry that I had to be away
so long today, but you will, I know forgive one who has so
many important affairs in hand."

Of course I said all I could about being willing, and
asked if I might come into that room when I chose. He answered, "Yes, certainly," and added.

"You may go anywhere you wish in the castle, except
where the doors are locked, where of course you will not
wish to go. There is reason that all things are as they are,
and did you see with my eyes and know with my knowledge,
you would perhaps better understand." I said I was sure of
this, and then he went on.

"We are in Transylvania, and Transylvania is not England. Our ways are not your ways, and there shall be to you
many strange things. Nay, from what you have told me of
your experiences already, you know something of what
strange things there may be."

This led to much conversation, and as it was evident
that he wanted to talk, if only for talking's sake, I asked him many questions regarding things that had already
happened to me or come within my notice. Sometimes he
sheered off the subject, or turned the conversation by
pretending not to understand, but generally he answered
all I asked most frankly. Then as time went on, and I had
got somewhat bolder, I asked him of some of the strange
things of the preceding night, as for instance, why the
coachman went to the places where he had seen the blue
flames. He then explained to me that it was commonly
believed that on a certain night of the year, last night,
in fact, when all evil spirits are supposed to have unchecked sway, a blue flame is seen over any place where
treasure has been concealed.

"That treasure has been hidden," he went on, "in the
region through which you came last night, there can be but
little doubt. For it was the ground fought over for centuries by the Wallachian, the Saxon, and the Turk. Why, there
is hardly a foot of soil in all this region that has not
been enriched by the blood of men, patriots or invaders.
In the old days there were stirring times, when the Austrian and the Hungarian came up in hordes, and the patriots
went out to meet them, men and women, the aged and the children too, and waited their coming on the rocks above the
passes, that they might sweep destruction on them with
their artificial avalanches. When the invader was triumphant he found but little, for whatever there was had been
sheltered in the friendly soil."

"But how," said I, "can it have remained so long undiscovered, when there is a sure index to it if men will
but take the trouble to look? "The Count smiled, and as his
lips ran back over his gums, the long, sharp, canine teeth
showed out strangely. He answered.

"Because your peasant is at heart a coward and a fool!
Those flames only appear on one night, and on that night no
man of this land will, if he can help it, stir without his
doors. And,dear sir, even if he did he would not know what
to do. Why, even the peasant that you tell me of who marked
the place of the flame would not know where to look in daylight even for his own work. Even you would not, I dare be
sworn, be able to find these places again?"

"There you are right," I said. "I know no more than the
dead where even to look for them." Then we drifted into
other matters.

"Come," he said at last, "tell me of London and of the
house which you have procured for me." With an apology for
my remissness, I went into my own room to get the papers
from my bag. Whilst I was placing them in order I heard a
rattling of china and silver in the next room, and as I
passed through, noticed that the table had been cleared and
the lamp lit, for it was by this time deep into the dark.
The lamps were also lit in the study or library, and I
found the Count lying on the sofa, reading, of all things
in the world, and English Bradshaw's Guide. When I came in
he cleared the books and papers from the table, and with
him I went into plans and deeds and figures of all sorts.
He was interested in everything, and asked me a myriad
questions about the place and its surroundings. He clearly
had studied beforehand all he could get on the subject of
the neighborhood, for he evidently at the end knew very
much more than I did. When I remarked this, he answered.

"Well, but, my friend, is it not needful that I should?
When I go there I shall be all alone, and my friend Harker
Jonathan, nay, pardon me. I fall into my country's habit of
putting your patronymic first, my friend Jonathan Harker
will not be by my side to correct and aid me. He will be
in Exeter, miles away, probably working at papers of the
law with my other friend, Peter Hawkins. So!"

We went thoroughly into the business of the purchase
of the estate at Purfleet. When I had told him the facts
and got his signature to the necessary papers, and had
written a letter with them ready to post to Mr. Hawkins, he
began to ask me how I had come across so suitable a place.
I read to him the notes which I had made at the time, and
which I inscribe here.

"At Purfleet, on a by-road, I came across just such a
place as seemed to be required, and where was displayed a
dilapidated notice that the place was for sale. It was surrounded by a high wall, of ancient structure, built of heavy
stones, and has not been repaired for a large number of
years. The closed gates are of heavy old oak and iron, all
eaten with rust.

"The estate is called Carfax, no doubt a corruption of
the old Quatre Face, as the house is four sided, agreeing
with the cardinal points of the compass. It contains in all
some twenty acres, quite surrounded by the solid stone wall
above mentioned. There are many trees on it, which make it
in places gloomy, and there is a deep, dark-looking pond
or small lake, evidently fed by some springs, as the water
is clear and flows away in a fair-sized stream. The house
is very large and of all periods back, I should say, to
mediaeval times, for one part is of stone immensely thick,
with only a few windows high up and heavily barred with
iron. It looks like part of a keep, and is close to an old
chapel or church. I could not enter it, as I had not the
key of the door leading to it from the house, but I have
taken with my Kodak views of it from various points. The
house had been added to, but in a very straggling way, and
I can only guess at the amount of ground it covers, which
must be very great. There are but few houses close at
hand, one being a very large house only recently added
to and formed into a private lunatic asylum. It is not, however, visible from the grounds."

When I had finished, he said, "I am glad that it is old
and big. I myself am of an old family, and to live in a new
house would kill me. A house cannot be made habitable in a
day, and after all, how few days go to make up a century. I
rejoice also that there is a chapel of old times. We Transylvanian nobles love not to think that our bones may lie
amongst the common dead. I seek not gaiety nor mirth, not
the bright voluptuousness of much sunshine and sparkling
waters which please the young and gay. I am no longer
young, and my heart, through weary years of mourning over
the dead, is attuned to mirth. Moreover, the walls of my
castle are broken. The shadows are many, and the wind
breathes cold through the broken battlements and casements.
I love the shade and the shadow, and would be alone with
my thoughts when I may." Somehow his words and his look
did not seem to accord, or else it was that his cast of
face made his smile look malignant and saturnine.

Presently, with an excuse, he left me, asking me to
pull my papers together. He was some little time away, and
I began to look at some of the books around me. One was an
atlas, which I found opened naturally to England, as if
that map had been much used. On looking at it I found in
certain places little rings marked, and on examining these
I noticed that one was near London on the east side, manifestly where his new estate was situated. The other two
were Exeter, and Whitby on the Yorkshire coast.

It was the better part of an hour when the Count returned. "Aha!" he said. "Still at your books? Good! But
you must not work always. Come! I am informed that your
supper is ready." He took my arm, and we went into the next
room, where I found an excellent supper ready on the table.
The Count again excused himself, as he had dined out on
his being away from home. But he sat as on the previous
night, and chatted whilst I ate. After supper I smoked,
as on the last evening, and the Count stayed with me, chatting and asking questions on every conceivable subject,
hour after hour. I felt that it was getting very late indeed, but I did not say anything, for I felt under
obligation to meet my host's wishes in every way. I was
not sleepy, as the long sleep yesterday had fortified me,
but I could not help experiencing that chill which comes
over one at the coming of the dawn, which is like, in its
way, the turn of the tide. They say that people who are
near death die generally at the change to dawn or at the
turn of the tide. Anyone who has when tired, and tied as
it were to his post, experienced this change in the
atmosphere can well believe it. All at once we heard the
crow of the cock coming up with preternatural shrillness
through the clear morning air.

Count Dracula, jumping to his feet, said, "Why there
is the morning again! How remiss I am to let you stay up so
long. You must make your conversation regarding my dear new
country of England less interesting, so that I may not forget how time flies by us," and with a courtly bow, he
quickly left me.

I went into my room and drew the curtains, but there
was little to notice. My window opened into the courtyard,
all I could see was the warm grey of quickening sky. So I
pulled the curtains again, and have written of this day.

8 May.--I began to fear as I wrote in this book that I
was getting too diffuse. But now I am glad that I went into
detail from the first, for there is something so strange
about this place and all in it that I cannot but feel uneasy.
I wish I were safe out of it, or that I had never come. It
may be that this strange night existence is telling on me,
but would that that were all! If there were any one to
talk to I could bear it, but there is no one.I have only the
Count to speak with, and he-- I fear I am myself the only
living soul within the place. Let me be prosaiac so far as
facts can be. It will help me to bear up, and imagination
must not run riot with me. If it does I am lost. Let me say
at once how I stand, or seem to.

I only slept a few hours when I went to bed,and feeling
that I could not sleep any more, got up. I had hung my shaving glass by the window, and was just beginning to shave.
Suddenly I felt a hand on my shoulder, and heard the Count's
voice saying to me, "Good morning." I started, for it amazed
me that I had not seen him,since the reflection of the glass
covered the whole room behind me. In starting I had cut myself slightly, but did not notice it at the moment. Having
answered the Count's salutation, I turned to the glass again
to see how I had been mistaken. This time there could be no
error, for the man was close to me, and I could see him
over my shoulder. But there was no reflection of him in the
mirror! The whole room behind me was displayed, but there
was no sign of a man in it, except myself.

This was startling, and coming on the top of so many
strange things, was beginning to increase that vague feeling
of uneasiness which I always have when the Count is near.
But at the instant I saw the the cut had bled a little, and
the blood was trickling over my chin. I laid down the razor,
turning as I did so half round to look for some sticking
plaster. When the Count saw my face, his eyes blazed with a
sort of demoniac fury, and he suddenly made a grab at my
throat. I drew away and his hand touched the string of
beads which held the crucifix. It made an instant change
in him, for the fury passed so quickly that I could hardly
believe that it was ever there.

"Take care," he said, "take care how you cut yourself.
It is more dangerous that you think in this country." Then
seizing the shaving glass, he went on, "And this is the
wretched thing that has done the mischief. It is a foul
bauble of man's vanity. Away with it!" And opening the
window with one wrench of his terrible hand, he flung out
the glass, which was shattered into a thousand pieces on
the stones of the courtyard far below. Then he withdrew
without a word. It is very annoying, for I do not see how
I am to shave, unless in my watch-case or the bottom of
the shaving pot, which is fortunately of metal.

When I went into the dining room, breakfast was prepared, but I could not find the Count anywhere. So I breakfasted alone. It is strange that as yet I have not seen the
Count eat or drink. He must be a very peculiar man! After
breakfast I did a little exploring in the castle. I went out
on the stairs, and found a room looking towards the South.

The view was magnificent, and from where I stood there
was every opportunity of seeing it. The castle is on the
very edge of a terrific precipice. A stone falling from the
window would fall a thousand feet without touching anything!
As far as the eye can reach is a sea of green tree tops,with
occasionally a deep rift where there is a chasm. Here and
there are silver threads where the rivers wind in deep
gorges through the forests.

But I am not in heart to describe beauty,for when I had
seen the view I explored further. Doors, doors, doors everywhere, and all locked and bolted. In no place save from the
windows in the castle walls is there an available exit. The
castle is a veritable prison, and I am a prisoner!